My little collection of roses is starting to “represent”, as my Texas friend would say. I only grow a few. The dwarf climber Jeanne LaJoie is perfectly hardy and willing for me; it does not mind at all being planted with the electric meter. Mini-Jeanne is paired with a voluptuous large flowered climber named Eden-the flower is so beautiful, and the plant is so-so for me, although the foliage seems healthy. This large flowered climber, also known as Pierre de Ronsard, and bred by Meilland in 1987, hasn’t flowered yet-but it is showy.

I grow the shrub rose “Carefree Beauty” for good, and sentimental reasons. Griffith Buck bred very hardy, very sturdy shrub roses-this is one of my favorites. I alternate this with his rose “Earthsong”. Some say its better than “Carefree Beauty-I can’t tell. But if your interest is in a low maintenance rose, these qualify. The tall ,English bred shrub rose “Sally Holmes” has gorgeous peach buds, and large single white flowers; I have been growing it for years. One year it died back almost entirely to the ground, but came back.

I am not a rosarian by any means. I am not really crazy about rose gardens either. But I do like roses in a mixed border. Roses are such prima donnas-they sulk if there’s anything growing at their feet. So I try to keep my white Japanese anemones, and boltonia out of their hair. I wouldn’t want to do without a few roses.

I had no plan to to talk about asparagus today-but there they were last night, poking up and already a foot tall.

Buck and I picked 10 stalks; 4 made it to the kitchen counter. I know next to nothing about growing vegetables, except as ornamentals; I do not cook and I have yet to ever read a recipe. I have been in a grocery store maybe 4 times in the last 15 years. I have worked seven days a week for the better part of 24 years, so a grocery store is not my idea of where I would spend my free time. I would just look at the cans with great labels, and imagine them planted with tomato starts for budding gardeners under the age of 9; Buck does the shopping and cooking. For better or for worse, I have planted my asparagus between my roses. I love how their ferny foliage masks how awkward and poor a rosebush looks, as a plant. Though I know perfectly well how to plant asparagus roots in a trench, other people tell that story much better than I, in particular, Margaret Roach.

If you do not read her blog, A Way to Garden, I would encourage you to do so. She will tell you how to grow asparagus, and anything else you might have a mind to grow. Or prune. Or nurture. Or abandon-she addresses all her topics with a great eye, and voice. She puts enough of herself out there to make anyone want to keep reading. She is a great writer to boot. I demand all my staff read her-and I give pop quizzes. She makes it possible to learn something without feeling like you are taking medicine.

But I have to say the asparagus word today, as its pushing aside the mulch and coming up like crazy-not on my schedule, but on the asparagus schedule. Home grown asparagus, raw, with the end of the day glass of wine, or barely cooked; even this peanut butter and butter girl appreciates the miracle of home grown asparagus.
Many times, driving in Michigan, I see old abandoned farms. Sometimes the house and barns are gone. But if there ever was asparagus, it is usually still there. It is incredibly long lived, like peonies, and old fashioned lilacs. As much as I admire endurance in gardeners (as Henry Mitchell said, “Defiance is what makes gardeners”), I also admire endurance in plants.

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About the Author

Deborah Silver is a landscape and garden designer whose firm, Deborah Silver and Co Inc, opened its doors in 1986. She opened Detroit Garden Works, a retail store devoted to fine and unusual garden ornament and specialty plants, in 1996. In 2004, she opened the Branch studio, a subsidiary of the landscape company which designs and manufactures garden ornament in a variety of media. Though her formal education is in English literature and biology, she worked as a fine artist in watercolor and pastel from 1972-1983. A job in a nursery, to help support herself as an artist in the early 80’s evolved into a career in landscape and garden design. Her landscape design and installation projects combine a thorough knowledge of horticulture with an artist’s eye for design. Her three companies provide a wide range of products and services to the serious gardener. She has been writing this journal style blog since April of 2009.